Team Clermont, the little Athens-based radio promotion company, is turning a whopping five years old this week -- no small feat for a small business, especially one in the rather unstable climate of radio.

They'll be celebrating (as usual) with the Big Weekend and Blue Ribbon Ball, an all-out throw down, music-filled weekend party, including a Friday show with headliners The Polyphonic Spree (story), the newest darling of the critics and runaway hit at this year's South by Southwest music fest, and Athens' own Of Montreal on Saturday.

Past years' Big Weekends have seen more than 600 in attendance, with more than 40 radio stations from across the U.S. and Canada represented, along with dozens of label representatives, CMJ staffers, photographers, writers and musicians.

To find out what's led to Team Clermont's success, we asked TC president Nelson Wells (and one-half of the DJ duo Das Cowboys UK) about the business and what's kept the company going for half a decade.

How have things grown in the last five years, and what do you think has contributed most to that growth?

Five is only training wheels and nap time in my book. A few of us are actually approaching the 10-year mark for doing music industry stuff.

SCHEDULE

Wristbands are $12 for both nights of music and events. This permits entry to the 40 Watt Club on both Friday, Aug. 2 from 9 p.m.-2 a.m. and Saturday, Aug. 3 from 11 p.m.-2 a.m. Tickets are available at Schoolkids Records, 264 E. Clayton St., (706) 353-1666; Low Yo Yo Stuff Records, 285 W. Washington St., (706) 227-6199; or online at www.teamclermont.com. The Big Weekend and Blue Ribbon Ball are sponsored by Pabst.

Friday, Aug. 2

40 Watt Club, 285 W. Washington St.; (706) 549-7871

(Tickets are $8 for Friday only.)

9 p.m. -- El Gato (Dallas, Texas)

9:45 -- Snowglobe (Memphis, Tenn.)

10:30 -- Sunshine Fix (Athens)

11:30 -- Songs: Ohia (Chicago, Ill.)

12:30 -- The Polyphonic Spree (Dallas, Texas)

Saturday, Aug. 3

The Blue Ribbon Ball (The Prom), 40 Watt Club

NOTE: The Blue Ribbon Ball is an invitation-only event before 11 p.m.; doors open to wristband holders only at 11 p.m. You must have a wristband to get into this event.

10 p.m. -- Of Montreal (Private set) The Prom Band, with special guests

As for expanding, we have to date only expanded the radio department by adding a third radio promotion rep back when we hired Lucas Jensen in '98. Since that time we simply maintained and tried hard not to be one of those companies that never makes it to the feared three-year mark. Now, at our five-year date, it has been less than six months since we expanded our publicity department by hiring Michelle Roche who was at Velocette Records, formerly Capricorn, and previous to that was at Restless Records in L.A. I definitely feel the pressure of being bigger than we were. We are no longer in diapers, that's for sure.

Probably the two main reasons we have been able to survive and thrive these last few years are, one: We have stuck to our guns. Somehow we have managed to maintain some level of integrity in this industry that is hard to come by. There are those of us who do -- especially in Athens, but it sometimes comes at a price. Actually the integrity-to-cheese ratio in Athens is outstanding; look at Kindercore, Elephant 6, R.E.M., The Drive-By Truckers, Star Room Boys and 80 percent of music-related folks in this town. It's a great thing to see when people are really making what they want creatively and at the same time they seem to have good taste.

The second reason for our true success comes down to the dedication of a few people like Bill (Benson) and Brian (Bowen). Those guys stuck with this company through its infancy and made it their own and really made it into something bigger. We would not be here without that kind of loyalty and belief in the bigger picture or without them. Luckily we have been able to find just such qualities in people like Helen (Charles) and Jeff (Griggs) who do radio promotion and in Becki Carr and Michelle who ARE the publicity department. I guess this whole group feels an attraction to being part of something small that they can help make bigger and better for themselves as well as for the whole.

How many people work at Team Clermont and in what different capacities?

In the radio department we have three (plus interns): Bill, Helen and Jeff. ... Brian has left this office to start up another company in the radio division called Addsman Promotions, which does esentially the same thing except works with fewer records at a time and with more rock acts than the team per se.

With radio promotion we are in contact with more than 500 radio stations across the United States and Canada, and we try and get as much airplay for our clients' artists as possible.

We mostly deal with college radio (one of the reasons I think we are able to keep a certain integrity in place).

In publicity, it is Michelle and Becki full-time, and their intern staff. They deal with more than 1,000 publications in order to get press, or print media, for our artists and clients.

SCHEDULE

Wristbands are $12 for both nights of music and events. This permits entry to the 40 Watt Club on both Friday, Aug. 2 from 9 p.m.-2 a.m. and Saturday, Aug. 3 from 11 p.m.-2 a.m. Tickets are available at Schoolkids Records, 264 E. Clayton St., (706) 353-1666; Low Yo Yo Stuff Records, 285 W. Washington St., (706) 227-6199; or online at www.teamclermont.com. The Big Weekend and Blue Ribbon Ball are sponsored by Pabst.

Friday, Aug. 2

40 Watt Club, 285 W. Washington St.; (706) 549-7871

(Tickets are $8 for Friday only.)

9 p.m. -- El Gato (Dallas, Texas)

9:45 -- Snowglobe (Memphis, Tenn.)

10:30 -- Sunshine Fix (Athens)

11:30 -- Songs: Ohia (Chicago, Ill.)

12:30 -- The Polyphonic Spree (Dallas, Texas)

Saturday, Aug. 3

The Blue Ribbon Ball (The Prom), 40 Watt Club

NOTE: The Blue Ribbon Ball is an invitation-only event before 11 p.m.; doors open to wristband holders only at 11 p.m. You must have a wristband to get into this event.

10 p.m. -- Of Montreal (Private set) The Prom Band, with special guests

Michelle has done this kind of publicity for probably 13 years and has a wealth of contacts, each of whom listen to her and what she has to say and write about the records she is working (on) over many other records out there. While Michelle handles national magazines and newspapers ... she may be pitching something to syndicated shows like ''All Things Considered'' on NPR (where she just confirmed, timely enough, a review of the debut from The Polyphonic Spree who are headlining the 40 Watt show Friday!). In addition, she may send certain bands to play televised shows like Letterman or the Conan O'Brien Show -- as was the case when (San Francisco-based) Beulah played Conan's show back in April. While Michelle is busy with everthing under the sun that is national, Becki is working on tour publicity in nearly every market in the country for the artists who are on the road touring. Michelle may handle major cities like New York and L.A., but Becki was cranking out interview after review for (Athens') Jucifer on their latest national tour. Becki is our newest addition to the team and we are proud to have her and her smiling face and her tiny little giggle as part of the company.

What do you count among Team Clermont's biggest accomplishments and why?

The biggest: We've made it to five (years). Whew! Everything else seems pale in comparison. No, really, on the radio side of things we helped get Low, Apples in Stereo and Tortoise each their first No. 1 chart positions after years of hard work and amazing albums on their own -- and up against big major label artists as well. We hooked (Athens') Macha up with their record label and got their first two records to No. 5 and No. 1 respectively. Things are very memorable for us as well as some key successes for bands like Grandaddy, Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips, where many people knew of them and who they were, but maybe didn't own much of their material. Now it seems that everyone in Athens, not to mention every other college town out there, owns at least one or two of those bands' CDs.

How did you get started in the radio promo business? Did living in Athens contribute to it?